I wonder how long Asia will keep importing diesel and gas powered German cars? Europe should pioneer the plug in pure electric car, since they don't have the oil industry lobbying to go slow on fuel econmoy. Could England produce an electric car?

"Could England produce an electric car?"

Does a fish fart bubbles? Does a bear shiit in the woods? Haell yes, England could produce an electric car....
http://www.pmlflightlink.com/archive/news_mini.html
:-)

RC
Remember, we are only one cubic mile from freedom

Got prices for that?

Luís de Sousa asked, concerning the British hybrid Mini,
"Got prices for that?"

Nope, you would have to contact them, but given the number of high output motors, I don't think it's planned to be in the Kia range....:-)

RC
Remember, we are only one cubic mile from freedom

Maybe - but we couldn't produce the electricity. The UK faces a more serious electricity shortage than oil shortage over the coming decade or two as nuclear is decommissioned, gas becomes scarce and aging coal is decommissioned on environmental grounds.

The answer will probably be to burn more coal, ruin the scottish countryside with windmills and to import surplus energy from France and Germany - like the Italians are doing.

But there's one thing I really don't get. Why aren't the southern Europeans (Spain, Italy and Greece) going all out on solar power? Why not subsidize it big time, like the Germans are doing? Why does this foggy old country think they need to show the rest of the world what to put on the roofs of the barns and houses?

One could, of course, organize this big time:
http://www.trecers.net

Europe's future will definitely not rely on cars and trucks. In my view we have to shift heavily to rail. Internal explosion engines can only on help on collective passenger transport (long range coach).

Rail sounds great, BUT it needs an enormous amount of infrastructure. It's great for the larger population centers (like here in Munich) and is continuing to be expanded. There's only one enormous problem with rail. It's not very flexible.

A car can travel from house to house (point to point - ppt in IT terms). A car can use almost any width of road. A car can drive on the sideburn or even in the grass on the side of the road, if an accident has blocked the intersection in front of you. Or turn around and find a different route. A car can travel on poor and non-paved roads. Only a horse beats the automobile (whether sedan, small truck, van, SUV or whatever) in flexibility! And a car can carry one to many passengers with or without luggage.

A train is not point to point and can only be used in combination with other means. Trains are great! But limitted.

When thinking about alternatives to a car, we have to replace the solutions that the car has offered us over the last century. Remember, the car more or less replaced the train in many (especially the less densly populated) countries.

Whether with internal combustion or electric or whatever really doesn't matter. Think PPT to come up with solutions! By the way, I think cars and trucks will definitely rely at least in part on cars and trucks - even if they don't look like the ones populating the roads today.

Cheers, Dom

Well Dom, maybe a meager energy world means that some of that flexibility will be lost.

Well, my bike is ready.-)

Or maybe it means that "precautionary" societies obsessed to the point of morbid fear by their own shadows, societies that among other things foolishly seek to "decommission" their only short term options, including nuclear power, societies that choose to ignore questions of supply, will simply become miserable backwaters self-consigned to the dustbin of history. Or maybe, more optimistically, when the effects of that sort of nonsensical rubbish really start to bite hard, the people of these fear-ridden societies will finally face up to the hard reality that life is a balancing act, so that seeking the absolute zero of risk and change - including but not limited to climate change and risk attached thereto - might not be the sole and exclusive factor in that balance.

(N.B. that link is impermanent.)

That is the hidden charm of rail. The rationing is implicit. Instead of 2000 cars, providing unlimited mobility 24 hours a day you get 20 departures in 2 directions at your local railstation.

Yeah - railways within cities are the future. Look to Mumbai/india - there are 3 main stretches faning out from downtown - and every station are supported by busses/rickshaws/taxies for the local vicinity of the stations. Private driving is rare as the local trains serves 6-7 millions a day ! Hurrah

Most definitly the UK can produce an electric car.

The Tesla Roadster is build by Lotus, and they participated in its design
Smith builds the Newton electric delivery truck.
The PML converted Mini as mentioned by another poster.

I'd say the British car industry is way ahead of the Germans and the French when it comes to electric vehicles.

Most definitly the UK can produce an electric car.

The Tesla Roadster is build by Lotus, and they participated in its design
Smith builds the Newton electric delivery truck.
The PML converted Mini as mentioned by another poster.

I'd say the British car industry is way ahead of the Germans and the French when it comes to electric vehicles.

well said realist -
What amazes me the most is actually the issue on cars!
Say the average car uses 1l/10km (for ease) , and we know for sure they can make cars running on 1/10 th of that, rendering a factor 10 more on benefits as economics, ecologic and prolonged usage of fossils for cars… These cars may be small two-seaters with an 100-250cc engine – bound for cities yielding easy 60km/h.
BUT the thing is you never ever hear of such in MSM – why is that ? Are the idea of grand scale modern driving bound for a ‘sudden death’?